The Gonzalez Resolution to Impeach George Bush

                                    
 Congressional Record, Jan. 16, 1991, at H520-21.

               RESOLUTION OF IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH

 

            The SPEAKER pro tempore.  Under a previous order of the House,
the gentleman from Texas [Mr. GONZALEZ] is recognized for 60 minutes.

           Mr. GONZALEZ, Madam Speaker, it is with great sadness, and yet
with equally great, if not greater, conviction, that I introduce today a
resolution of impeachment of President Bush.  It is known as House
Resolution 34, and I will provide this resolution as introduced to be
appended at the end of my remarks today.

            At a time when our Nation is deeply divided over the question of
war, we find ourselves on the brink of a world war of such magnitude that
our minds cannot fully comprehend the destruction that is about to be
leveled.  The position we are in is a direct result of the actions of one
man and the reactions of another.  The Iraqi people are as opposed to war as
are the American people.  The difference is that the Iraqi people have no
choice but to support their country's leader, but the American people not
only have the right to oppose and speak out in disagreement with the
President, but they have the responsibility to do so if our democracy is to
be preserved.  Today I exercise this constitutional right and responsibility
to speak out in opposition to war in the Middle East and in support of
removal of our Nation's Chief Executive.

            When I took the oath of office earlier this month, as I had
numerous times before, I swore to uphold the Constitution.  The President's
oath was the same, to uphold the Constitution of the United States.  We did
not pledge an oath of allegiance to the President but to the Constitution,
which is the highest law of the land.  The Constitution provides for removal
of the President when he has committed high crimes and misdemeanors,
including violations of the principles of the Constitution.  President Bush
has violated these principles.

            My resolution has five articles of impeachment.  First, the
President has violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution.  Our
soldiers in the Middle East are overwhelmingly poor white, black, and
Mexican-American or Hispanic-American.  They may be volunteers technically,
but their voluntarism is based on the coercion of a system that has denied
viable opportunities to these classes of our citizens.  Under the
Constitution, all classes of citizens are guaranteed equal protection, and
calling on the poor and the minorities to fight a war for oil to preserve
the lifestyles of the wealthy is a denial of the rights of these soldiers.

            Let me add that since 1981 we have suffered the Reagan-Bush and
now the Bush war against the poor, and to add insult to injury, we now are
asking the poor to fight while here, as a result of this fight, even the
meager programs that the Congress had seen fit to preserve as a national
policy will suffer because the money for those programs will be diverted to
the cause of this unnecessary war.

            Article II of this resolution states that the President has
violated the Constitution, Federal law, and the U.N. Charter by bribing,
intimidating, and threatening others, including the members of the U.N.
Security Council, to support belligerent acts against Iraq.  It is clear
that the President paid off members of the U.N. Security Council in return
for their votes in support of war against Iraq or to abstain from voting
contrariwise.  The debt of Egypt was, for example, forgiven--$7 billion,
without congressional approval.  That, I think, casts doubtful validity on
that Presidential action.  The reason for the cancellation of that debt is
so that we can then provide an equally enormous amount of armament for Egypt
which it cannot obtain because of the debt outstanding.  A $140 million loan
to China was agreed to.  The Soviet Union was promised over $7 billion in
aid.  This is a sum totally unreported in our country but very well
discussed in foreign country presses such as Germany and others.  Colombia
was promised assistance to its armed forces.  Zaire was promised military
assistance and partial forgiveness of its debt.  Saudi Arabia was promised
$12 billion in arms, and more than that.  Actually in October, the President
let them have $2.2 billion, and there was a commitment for $21 billion more,
but because of the outcry in Congress and the Israeli opposition, that is
being postponed.  But there is still a commitment for $22 billion.  I am
sure this month will see the initial efforts to bring about compliance with
that commitment.

            Yemen was threatened with the termination of support, and the
United States finally paid off $187 million of its debt to the United
Nations after the vote President Bush sought was made.

            This is all so ironic.  When our President ran for the U.S.
Senate in the 1960's, he told the people of Texas that if he would be
elected to the Senate, he would lead the fight to remove the United States
from the United Nations if what he called Red China at that time was
admitted.  Fate and power almighty have a very, very mysterious way of
working together.  Who was to believe during that year in that race in Texas
that years later this same man, now the President, would be the man the
President would appoint to represent us in the United Nations and welcome
Red China as a member of the United Nations.

            The vote was bought, and it will be paid for with the lives of
our poor elements who are going to shoulder the fight.

            Article III states that the President has conspired to engage in
a massive war against Iraq, employing methods of mass destruction that will
result in the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, many of whom will
be children.  No civilian lives have yet been lost that we know of, but when
we start using the weapons of massive destruction that are in place for this
war, there is no doubt that thousands of innocent civilians will lose their
lives.  As killings occur, the principles laid down in the Nuremberg trials
will be applicable.  Their deaths will not only be a moral outrage, they
will constitute violations of international law.

            Article IV states that the President has committed the United
States to acts of war without congressional consent and contrary to the U.N.
Charter and international law.  From August 1990 through January 1991 the
President embarked on a course of action that systematically eliminated
every option for peaceful resolution of the Persian Gulf crisis.  Once the
President approached Congress for a declaration of war, 500,000 American
soldiers lives were in jeopardy, rendering any substantive debate by
Congress meaningless.  It is also ironic that what we have ended up with now
is that the President has exchanged about 200 to 250 so-called hostages,
Americans, all of them employees of oil companies in Kuwait or Iraq, and in
exchange we now have close to 500,000 American soldiers as hostages.
Hostages to the whims, the caprices, and the decisions and judgments made by
other leaders, over which this President and our country has no control, all
the way from Shamir of Israel to the immigrants in the Saudi sands.

                                                                        / /
1320

            Article 5 states that the President has conspired to commit
crimes against the peace by leading the United States into aggressive war
against Iraq, in violation of article 24 of the U.N. Charter, the Nuremberg
Charter, other international instruments and treaties, and the Constitution
of the United States.

            Again, there is a violation of law by a President, who,
believing and acting as if he is king, decides for the country,
unilaterally, that war is the answer.

            Madam Speaker, it is a sad day for our country, and it will be
an even sadder day once the fighting starts.  President Bush must be
stopped.  A divided Congress reflecting the divided country is no way to
conduct a war.  The preservation of lives is at stake, and the preservation
of our country, indeed, our democracy, is at stake as well.

            I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.  All I ask is a
hearing, as I have before, before the proper committee of proper
jurisdiction, and that is it.  I will argue the case there.  The rest is up
to the Members' judgment.

            Madam Speaker, I urge interest and support of this resolution,
and to stand up to the President on behalf of the soldiers who will die, the
civilians who will be massacred, and the Constitution that will be destroyed
if this country goes to war in the Middle East.

102nd Congress                                              H.Res.86

1st Session

 

                                                      ____/s/ Henry B.
Gonzalez____

 

Impeaching George Herbert Walker Bush, President of the United States, of
high crimes and misdemeanors.

 
_______________________________________________

                                            IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                                          February 21, 1991 (originally January 16, 1991)

 

Mr. GONZALEZ submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on Judiciary.

 
________________________________________________

                                                               A RESOLUTION

Impeaching George Herbert Walker Bush, President of the United States, of
high crimes and misdemeanors.

 

Impeaching George Herbert Walker Bush, President of the United States, of
high crimes and misdemeanors.

            Resolved, That George Herbert Walker Bush, President of the
United States is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the
following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the Senate:

            Articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of
Representatives of the United States of America in the name of itself and of
all of the people of the United States of America, against George Herbert
Walker Bush, President of the United States of America, in maintenance and
support of its impeachment against him for high crimes and misdemeanors.

                                                                  
   ARTICLE I

            In the conduct of the office of President of the United States,
George Herbert Walker Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath
faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to
the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of
the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care
that the laws be faithfully executed, has violated the equal protection
clause of the Constitution.  U.S. soldiers in the Middle East are
overwhelmingly poor white, black, and Mexican-American, and their military
service is based on the coercion of an system that has denied viable
economic opportunities to these classes of citizens.  Under the
Constitution, all classes of citizens are guaranteed equal protection, and
calling on the poor and minorities to fight a war for oil to preserve the
lifestyles of the wealthy is a denial of the rights of these soldiers.  In
all of this George Herbert Walker Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his
trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great
prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the
people of the United States.

            Wherefore George Herbert Walker Bush, by such conduct, warrants
impeachment and trial, and removal from office.

                                                                   
 ARTICLE II

            In the conduct of the office of President of the United States,
George Herbert Walker bush, in violation of his constitutional oath
faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to
the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of
the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care
that the laws be faithfully executed, has violated the U.S. Constitution,
federal law and the United Nations Charter by bribing, intimidating and
threatening others, including the members of the United Nations Security
Council, to support belligerent acts against Iraq.  In all of this George
Herbert Walker Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President
and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the
cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the
United States.

            Wherefore George Herbert Walker Bush, by such conduct, warrants
impeachment and trial, and removal from office.

                                                                  
  ARTICLE III

            In the conduct of the office of President of the United States,
George Herbert Walker Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath
faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to
the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of
the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care
that the laws be faithfully executed, has prepared, planned, and conspired
to engage in a massive war against Iraq employing methods of mass
destruction that will result in the killing of tens of thousands of
civilians, many of whom will be children.  This planning includes the
placement and potential use of nuclear weapons, and the use of such
indiscriminate weapons and massive killings by serial bombardment, or
otherwise, of civilians violates the Hague Conventions of 1907 and 1923, the
Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Protocol I thereto, the Nuremberg Charter,
the Genocide Convention and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
In all of this George Herbert Walker Bush has acted in a manner contrary to
his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the
great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury
of the people of the United States.

            Wherefore George Herbert Walker Bush, by such conduct, warrants
impeachment and trial, and removal from office.

                                                                  
  ARTICLE IV

            In the conduct of the office of President of the United States,
George Herbert Walker Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath
faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to
the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of
the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care
that the laws be faithfully executed, has committed the United States to
acts of war without congressional consent and contrary to the United Nations
Charter and international law.  From August, 1990, through January, 1991,
the President embarked on a course of action that systematically eliminated
every option for peaceful resolution of the Persian Gulf crisis.  Once the
President approached Congress for a declaration of war, 500,000 American
soldiers' lives were in jeopardy - rendering any substantive debate by
Congress meaningless.  The President has not received a declaration of war
by Congress, and in contravention of the written word, the spirit, and the
intent of the U.S. Constitution has declared that he will go to war
regardless of the views of Congress and the American people.  In failing to
seek a declaration of war, and in declaring his intent to violate the
Constitution in disregarding the acts of Congress - including the War Powers
Resolution - George Herbert Walker Bush has acted in a manner contrary to
his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the
great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury
of the people of the United States.

            Wherefore George Herbert Walker Bush, by such conduct, warrants
impeachment and trial, and removal from office.

                                                                  
  ARTICLE V

            In the conduct of the office of President of the United States,
George Herbert Walker Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath
faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to
the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of
the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care
that the laws be faithfully executed, has planned, prepared, and conspired
to commit crimes against the peace by leading the United States into
aggressive war against Iraq in violation of Article 2(4) of the United
Nations Charter, the Nuremberg Charter, other international instruments and
treaties, and the Constitution of the United States.  In all of this George
Herbert Walker Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President
and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the
cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the
United States.

            Wherefore George Herbert Walker Bush, by such conduct, warrants
impeachment and trial, and removal from office.
Sound Familiar?  Contact your U.S. Representative and demand that he or she sponsor similar articles of impeachment against George W. Bush.  Any member of Congress is  welcome to contact Prof. Francis A. Boyle, who will help draft articles of impeachment and serve as impeachment counsel free of charge.
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